Third-Party Integrations and Shopping Carts

[mandy]

Many of the services used by Internet merchants can be integrated into shopping cart software. That way, instead of logging into separate accounts to perform needed online services, the shopping cart program does it for you. There’s everything from shipping software that automatically computes shipping costs for orders, and prints out labels on the merchant’s side that comply to USPS or Federal Express guidelines, to software that seamlessly takes order information and feeds it into QuickBooks for bookkeeping and inventory control. The integration simply assures that the shopping cart software can accurately transmit its data to the add-on functions and features. That’s a tall order when working with multiple vendors with multiple requirements.

Merchants can go through the integration processes and coding on their own, or can work with a shopping cart service that has already done this legwork for them. “This is one of the ways to quickly weed out the entry-level from advanced e-commerce software platforms,” says Massimo Arrigoni, a 10-year veteran of web software development. “The ones that have taken the time to get the certifications and integrations are more than likely the ones that are tried and true.”...

full article: http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articl...er-To-Use/

[amy]

Each third-party service came with Dupuis’ Deluxe Quick Shopping Cart from GoDaddy, requiring a simple click by Dupuis to set up.

The bold text should be enough to tell you that this article sucked . If you require anything more advanced than the basic integration tools provided by entry level carts like GoDaddy Quick Cart it isn't covered in this article.  Not a single mention of Stone Edge Order Manager (which I use) or any of the other similar order managers.

[valleygirl]

Not a single mention of Stone Edge Order Manager (which I use) or any of the other similar order managers.

They also overlooked call center integration, supplier integration, fulfillment integration, etc.